Published in 1895, Max Simon Nordau’s Degeneration argued that
over-civilization, progress, and wealth were destroying Western culture. He
found examples of such decadence in the work of western artists, correlating
what he perceived to be a decay of their vigor with mental illness. In the
early years of the twentieth century, fears of such dangers inherent in
industrialization triggered a back-to-nature movement in the United States that
many historians have attributed to a rejection of the artificial, modern world
of smoke-belching factories, undesirable immigrants, and stultifying cities that
left their inhabitants feeling detached from any meaningful interaction with
the real natural world. Through a careful analysis of the published and
unpublished works and correspondence of modernist poets Harriet Monroe,
Marianne Moore, and Ezra Pound, Robin Schulze argues an alternative
interpretation of the back-to-nature movement in The Degenerate Muse. Her
three main subjects were not romantic pastoralists who hoped to educate or
inspire their readers with rousing literary vistas of natural wonders. Instead,
as Schulze concludes, they argued for a hard-boiled back-to-nature aesthetic
that embraced —not
rejected —modernity
by using the natural world as an antidote to degeneration. They appreciated the
benefits that industrialization bestowed on society, but sought to mitigate its
negative cultural and racial effects with an invigorating dose of nature. There
was no need, in their eyes, to throw out the progressive, prosperous, modernist
baby with the degenerative bathwater.

The trio may have shared a broad
understanding of how nature could invigorate art and solve Nordau’s dilemma, but Schulze skillfully delineates
the considerable nuances and diversity among them. For example, each of the
three arrived at the conclusion that nature could solve the predicament of
degeneration from very different points. Monroe’s epiphany occurred as the result of trips to Europe in
1897 and Arizona in 1899. Following a path charted earlier by Thomas Jefferson,
she concluded that the raw nature of America could save it from the advanced
cultural decay evident in Europe. Pound, who made, it seems, almost no personal
attempt to commune directly with the outdoors, understood the importance of
nature after he witnessed degeneration occurring in London before his own eyes.
He viewed the heart of the British Empire as an artificial place that turned
its inhabitants into mindless automatons. Moore was influenced by Charles
Darwin and how evolution drew humans into the animal kingdom. This newfound
brotherhood with other species inspired her appreciation of the natural world.
Pound focused more on racial decline and “hygiene,” the ugly underside of theory of degeneration, than the
other two poets, a perspective that led him to praise Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini’s
policies in the 1930s. Moore, on the other hand, appreciated the importance of
diversity and individuality, which put corporate concepts like race beyond her
ken. It is interesting to note that they did not always see each other as
allies in a common cause. For example, Monroe, the editor of Poetry: A
Magazine of Verse, never believed that she and Moore occupied any common
ground, an assumption that Pound attempted unsuccessfully to disabuse her of. Whatever their differences, their effort,
Schulze concludes in the final sentence of The
Degenerate Muse, “made
nature modern.”(p.
239)

By expanding the scope of the
back-to-nature movement beyond the physical and educational experiences found
in bird days, camping, hunting, and primitive crafts, and into artistic
intellectual expression, Schulze has demonstrated how profoundly deep the
concerns about the growing gap between urban life and nature were in the first
two decades of the twentieth century. The Degenerate Muse is well argued and
the main points are clear and convincing. In keeping with an academic work
published by a scholarly press, it contains lengthy end notes, complete with
historiographical comments and dialogues on the works of others. However, a few
illustrations would have been a nice addition. Cultural, intellectual, and
environmental historians with a strong interest in the literature and poetry of
period will find this book useful.

About Me

I earned my PhD in 2002 from Lehigh University. I am the author of The Most Defiant Devil: William Temple Hornaday & His Controversial Crusade to Save American Wildlife (University of Virginia Press, 2013) and Chester A. Arthur: The Life of a Gilded Age President and Politician (Nova, 2007).